Sahel Crisis Responding to the urgent needs of refugees, internally displaced, returnees and others of concern

To respond to the deepening crisis, UNHCR requires $185.7 million to provide lifesaving protection and assistance to 1.5 million refugees, IDPs, returnees and host communities the Sahel IDPs region. 820,825 This includes the $96.7 million in initial requirements for 2020, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM- $29.3 million to implement COVID-19 prevention and response SEEKERS measures in displacement areas, and an additional $59.7 million 684,038 to scale up its emergency response, focusing on shelter and core RETURNEES relief items, prevention of and response to sexual and gender- (REFUGEES AND IDPs) based violence, education and the environment.

106,555 OTHERS OF CONCERN

$185.7 million NEEDED IN REVISED JUNE 2020 FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS

SAHEL CRISIS > RESPONDING TO THE URGENT NEEDS OF REFUGEES, INTERNALLY DISPLACED, RETURNEES AND OTHERS OF CONCERN

Contents

Overview 3 Working environment 6 UNHCR’s response to date 7 Strategic priorities 8 Planned activities and implementation 9 Burkina Faso 12 Mali 14 Niger 16 Coordination and working in partnership 17 Funding the response 18

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Overview This context is exacerbated by the The central Sahel region—Burkina Faso, COVID-19 pandemic, which is already Mali and Niger—is facing a severe affecting areas hosting refugees and humanitarian and protection crisis. IDPs. Despite a low number of tests and Massive displacement, most of it driven cases detected so far, the steady increase by intense and largely indiscriminate of infection rates indicates a forthcoming violence perpetrated by a range of armed emergency that far exceeds the capacity actors against civilian populations, is of national health sectors. The immediate taking place across the region. While socio-economic impact will have longer- internal displacement is on the rise term consequences for food security and substantial numbers of refugees have fled access to services and livelihoods to neighboring countries, and the throughout the Sahel region, situation risks spilling over into the coastal disproportionately impacting displaced countries of Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, populations and jeopardizing durable and Togo. solutions.

Local communities have demonstrated Coupled with the just starting lean remarkable generosity but are at a season, which is predicted to be one of breaking point. National capacities are the most serious in decades, this situation overwhelmed, and international support will likely generate further large-scale has been disproportionately dedicated to displacement of populations within the security assistance, with limited resources region and beyond: possibly southward to being made available for urgently needed coastal countries, as well as northward to humanitarian and development activities. North Africa and Europe.

The emergency is here, in the Sahel, where people are suffering, are being killed, women are being raped, children cannot go to school. The Sahel is the place where we must intervene before this crisis becomes unmanageable.”

“ Filippo Grandi United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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People of concern in Sahel countries as of 1 May 2020

EVOLUTION OF IDP POPULATION (LAST 12 MONTHS)

1,531,577 1,492,166 3,142,995 PEOPLE OF CONCERN 1,118,068 1,120,112 1,121,766 1,044,395 994,196 1,001,045

COUNTRIES WITH

MAJOR IMPACT 776,012 721,865 COUNTRIES WITH 655,121 MEDIUM IMPACT 604,774 COUNTRIES WITH LOW IMPACT May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

EVOLUTION OF REFUGEE POPULATION (LAST 12 MONTHS) 811,863 1,531,577 IDPs 794,266 REFUGEES AND 783,671 820,825 ASYLUM SEEKERS 780,768 776,815

RETURNEES (IDPs 768,816 769,025 769,306 684,038 AND REFUGEES) 765,808 765,565 759,444 OTHERS OF 106,555 CONCERN 738,501

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

PEOPLE OF CONCERN BY COUNTRY PEOPLE OF CONCERN BY STATUS PEOPLE OF CONCERN AFFECTED

IDPs 49%

REFUGEES & ASYLUM 26% SEEKERS

IDP RETURNEES 18%

REFUGEE 4% RETURNEES

OTHERS 3%

**The majority of refugees in Chad are from Sudan and CAR

4 5

People of concern in Sahel countries as of 1 May 2020

EVOLUTION OF IDP POPULATION (LAST 12 MONTHS)

1,531,577 1,492,166 3,142,995 PEOPLE OF CONCERN 1,118,068 1,120,112 1,121,766 1,044,395 994,196 1,001,045

COUNTRIES WITH

MAJOR IMPACT 776,012 721,865 COUNTRIES WITH 655,121 MEDIUM IMPACT 604,774 COUNTRIES WITH LOW IMPACT May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

EVOLUTION OF REFUGEE POPULATION (LAST 12 MONTHS) 811,863 1,531,577 IDPs 794,266 REFUGEES AND 783,671 820,825 ASYLUM SEEKERS 780,768 776,815

RETURNEES (IDPs 768,816 769,025 769,306 684,038 AND REFUGEES) 765,808 765,565 759,444 OTHERS OF 106,555 CONCERN 738,501

May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

PEOPLE OF CONCERN BY COUNTRY PEOPLE OF CONCERN BY STATUS PEOPLE OF CONCERN AFFECTED

IDPs 49%

REFUGEES & ASYLUM 26% SEEKERS

IDP RETURNEES 18%

REFUGEE 4% RETURNEES

OTHERS 3%

**The majority of refugees in Chad are from Sudan and CAR

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Working environment

Insecurity, geography, climate and a global Attacks on civilians are only the latest drivers pandemic: all conspire to present UNHCR and of displacement in a region already struggling its partners with one of the most difficult with extreme poverty, scarce basic services, operating environments in the world. and climate change, and now the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since an initial outbreak in northern Mali in 2011, armed conflict has spread to central While security expenditures by governments Mali, to Niger, to Burkina Faso, and is likely to are on the rise, this has not been matched by impact coastal countries such as Benin, Côte investment in public or social services, d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. meaning that humanitarian assistance is a lifeline for more than three million people As one of the fastest growing displacement whose needs continue to outpace available crises in the world, millions continue to flee resources. During 2020-2021, elections will indiscriminate attacks by armed groups take place in eight of the nine countries against civilians such as summary executions, covered by this strategy. If these are not the widespread use of rape against women, carefully managed, they could add to the as well as attacks against state institutions, existing instability. including schools and health facilities. The region is vast and is one of the most at Refugees finding themselves in the Liptako- risk from adverse effects of climate change. Gourma, the border triangle where Burkina Those effects are already being felt. Faso, Mali and Niger converge, are seeking Competition for land and the impact of climate safety in areas that are also plagued by change have generated divisions between violence and poverty. Many have been communities based on ethnic affiliation. These displaced several times. tensions are exploited by insurgent groups, The situation is interlinked with the situations leading to more inter-ethnic fighting. in Cameroon, Libya and Nigeria due to the In addition, governments in the Sahel are shared ideology between armed groups, taking general measures to prevent the similar operating modes, their geographic spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and protect proximity, and their illicit financing methods. populations. Although these measures are not The security situation in complicated further specific to refugees, IDPs, stateless persons or by the broad range of regular and irregular returnees, limits on mobility within and across armed actors, including national armies, borders disproportionately impact these international forces and a UN peacekeeping populations in their search for protection and mission, as well as insurgent groups, solutions. community-based armed groups, traffickers and criminal gangs.

Ongoing insecurity and hostilities between parties to the conflicts, the presence of improvised explosive devices and landmines, as well as other physical constraints such as lack of road infrastructure, flooding, and rough terrain make humanitarian access extremely difficult and, at times, risky.

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UNHCR’s response to date UNHCR’s protection-centered response has Education focused on the urgent needs faced by people of concern—refugees, IDPs, returnees, UNHCR is working with governments to persons at risk of statelessness and host enable emergency education for displaced communities. Throughout its interventions, children and youth via access to safe distance UNHCR has ensured the inclusion and learning alternatives. This support includes meaningful participation of, and accountability health training for teachers and community to, affected people. awareness-raising activities on COVID-19 and basic prevention measures as well as Shelter and core relief items upgrades to water and sanitation facilities in schools. For instance, UNHCR has assisted UNHCR has provided emergency structures, 21,000 primary school-aged children in Mali construction materials, CRIs and cash grants. and Niger. Since the beginning of the year, UNHCR has provided shelter assistance to over 25,000 COVID-19 families and aims to conclude the distribution of CRIs to 16,500 families by the end June Since the beginning of COVID-19, UNHCR 2020. operations are helping to reinforce national healthcare systems, WASH structures, and Prevention and response to services in areas hosting displaced populations sexual and gender-based and surrounding communities to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on people of concern violence and host communities. In western Niger for example, UNHCR is supporting the authorities UNHCR has been implementing a of Tahoua and Tillabery to rehabilitate and comprehensive prevention and response extend existing health structures to allow for strategy ensuring that survivors’ psychosocial, the isolation and treatment of potential COVID medical, legal and subsistence needs are met patients. in a holistic manner. For example, in Burkina Faso and Niger, UNHCR and its partners Moreover, UNHCR Niger is supporting the began running mobile clinics in conflict- salary payment of 130 national medical staff affected areas to provide medical and for an initial period of three months in psychosocial support to SGBV survivors, addition to training 600 healthcare workers in complementing existing programs. all refugee hosting areas. In Burkina Faso UNHCR has installed 1,728 communal and Furthermore, in the Tillabery and Tahoua individual water stations in several refugee regions of Niger, UNHCR is upgrading 11 safe and IDP hosting areas, as well as a 5,000- spaces dedicated to the care of SGBV liters water reservoir in Dori where we are survivors and adding 50 more case workers, trucking water. Furthermore, UNHCR has been social workers, psychologists, and legal supporting refugees to make tens of counsellors to ensure timely services and thousands of reusable masks being distributed social distancing. to refugees, IDPs and host communities across the Sahel.

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Strategic priorities

UNHCR’s response is structured around a by solid data collection and analysis, UNHCR’s three-pronged geographical approach: response prioritizes the following:

Countries already facing a severe Scale-up of emergency preparedness and

humanitarian crisis (Burkina Faso, response, focusing on shelter and CRIs. Mali and Niger) Protection and physical safety, transforming Countries already impacted (Chad, the commitments made during the Bamako Mauritania) Dialogue into a result-oriented process. This Countries which might be impacted pillar also prioritizes SGBV response and by a spill-over of the current education. situation (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo) Partnerships for solutions with a strong development orientation to strengthen the Drawing from its mandate, protection resilience of displaced and host communities, leadership, Inter-Agency Standing Committee as well as service provision by local authorities responsibilities and comparative advantage to promote social cohesion and limit the such as wide field presence, and underscored impact of displacement on the environment.

C ritical needs by sector

Shelter and core relief

items ▪ Close to 500,000 vulnerable people immediately need in-kind shelter and core relief items ▪ Another 42,200 households urgently require cash grants for shelter materials and 53,100 families for core relief items ▪ At least 65% women of reproductive age need to receive sanitary materials

Protection, including prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence

▪ Over 310 community groups need support to ensure protection and assistance (including prevention and response to SGBV) ▪ Activities need to be intensified in order to identify at least 1,000 SGBV incidents and provide medical and psychosocial assistance to the survivors ▪ 13 joint assessments and 377 monitoring missions need to be conducted and recorded to support data collection and analysis Education

▪ Some 638 teachers need additional training, including for distance education ▪ Over 150 educational facilities need to be constructed or improved ▪ Almost 270 WASH educational facilities need to be constructed or rehabilitated

Environment and energy

▪ Over 47% of households need access to sustainable energy ▪ Almost 40% of households need alternative and/or renewable energy (such as solar, biogas, ethanol, environmentally friendly briquets, or wind)

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Planned activities and implementation

UNHCR’s Sahel strategy is a scaled-up basic preventive measures such as social response to the unprecedented violence and distancing and handwashing, exposing displacement crisis in the Sahel initially themselves to heightened risk of contracting covering 2020-2021. Activities planned pre- COVID-19 as the virus spreads towards major COVID 19 will be implemented in line with hosting areas. To address these issues, public health measures imposed as a result of UNHCR operations are implementing targeted the pandemic. This includes addressing shelter interventions and distributing CRIs as shelter needs in overcrowded settlements, well as exploring ways to decongest the most supporting distance education, providing affected hosting areas in coordination with the effective response to SGBV incidents national and local authorities. aggravated by confinement measures, and continuing other protection activities such as Shelter needs are acute, especially for IDPs in registration, documentation and facilitating the areas of Mopti in Mali, and Burkina Faso’s access to asylum. North and Central Sahel regions. Therefore, UNHCR’s scale-up focuses primarily on Shelter and core relief items meeting at least 25% of IDP shelter and CRIs needs as part of wider inter-agency efforts. In Refugees and IDPs are often residing in addition, shelter interventions aim to offer overcrowded camps and sites or among host sustainable, eco-friendly housing being communities, living in already precarious developed to integrate refugees and IDPs into conditions in traditionally underserved areas. host-communities and promote peaceful Due to poverty, many resort to building flimsy coexistence. shelters using tree branches or cardboard, Planned shelter activities include delivery and exposing themselves to theft and violence. In distribution of tents, prefabricated housing these dire living conditions, with limited units, shelter kits and cash for shelter, as well access to WASH facilities, forcibly displaced as reception centers for both newly displaced people are often unable to apply the most IDPs and refugees.

Prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence

Incidents of rape and other forms of sexual UNHCR will work with its partners and the violence, abuse and exploitation, trafficking, military to ensure prevention actions, put in forced and early marriage, and unwanted place strong referral mechanisms for survivors pregnancy have become widespread in conflict of SGBV, reinforce existing health structures, areas of the Sahel. and create new mobile health services in remote areas. As a result, there is further displacement and breakdown of family and community Priority activities will include: structures. This situation is exacerbated by the ▪ Launching mobile clinics to provide medical spread of COVID-19, which is expected to and psychosocial support to survivors at disproportionately impact women and girls, home and in remote areas. who are traditionally those who care for sick family members and who are being exposed ▪ Strengthening community protection to negative family coping mechanisms like structures involving community and child marriage in times of crisis. religious leaders to prevent SGBV and end stigmatization of survivors. Focusing on prevention and response through ▪ Advocating for coordinated and expanded awareness-raising and provision of comprehensive support to SGBV survivors, referral mechanisms among partners.

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Education

The impact of armed conflict on education in the digital divide will continue to exacerbate the Central Sahel region is devastating. As of the education divide. February 2020, 3,641 schools had been closed In support of ministries of education, and in or had been destroyed in attacks, affecting collaboration with UNICEF and other key 700,000 students and 20,000 teachers. The education partners, UNHCR's education combined impact of insecurity and the spread activities will prioritize the rehabilitation of of COVID-19 in the Sahel is particularly school facilities, construction of classrooms, devastating for the education sector as school and support distance learning where closures are no longer restricted to conflict insecurity or mandatory school closures due to areas but affect entire countries. the pandemic affect enrolment. These actions Prolonged school closures are likely to are expected to: disproportionately impact displaced children. ▪ Prevent the radicalization and recruitment They not only have their education interrupted of children and youth by creating a but also lose the safety offered by a school protective learning environment. and face increased risk of abuse, neglect, violence, and exploitation. The situation is ▪ Allow refugees to make up for missed especially precarious for girls, who are more schooling and accommodate language at risk of permanently dropping out and differences in learning. forced marriage. Ensuring continuity of education for displaced children and youth is ▪ Result in the recognition of refugee teachers’ credentials and their integration challenging, especially in rural areas where into the national workforce.

Emergency preparedness

Furthermore, UNHCR and partners will UNHCR will ensure that its stockpiles of shelter kits and CRIs in Accra, Ghana and Douala, regularly update a regional contingency plan Cameroon can cover the needs of at least that will factor in potential further influxes of 20,000 people at any given time. The Malian refugee into Mauritania as well as

resumption of humanitarian flights, initially displacement to coastal countries, namely grounded due to the closure of airspace Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo should because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the conflict spill over from eastern Burkina Faso. opening of humanitarian corridors as

governments gradually ease restrictions, will

allow for replenishment and continued pre- positioning of supplies closer to delivery points.

Additional resources will also facilitate the

disbursement of cash for shelter and relocation of refugees to safer sites granted by the Governments with space for agropastoral activities. Preparedness for potential COVID- 19 outbreaks also requires installing and

equipping isolation and treatment facilities as well as water stations and medical supplies in all refugee and IDP-hosting areas.

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Bamako Process ▪ Humanitarian access and civil-military Promoting and supporting government coordination. cooperation is critical to addressing the crisis. ▪ Protection in the context of the UN Therefore, UNHCR aims to support the framework for the prevention of violent establishment of the Bamako Process—an extremism. inter-governmental platform bringing together all stakeholders to operationalize the ▪ Access to asylum in the context of mass conclusions of the Bamako Declaration signed influx and mixed movements. by the Governments of Burkina Faso, Chad, ▪ Solutions for refugees, IDPs and other Mali, Mauritania and Niger. The Bamako civilian populations. Process will be structured around technical ▪ Access to civil registration, identity committees with participation and support document and nationality from other UN agencies, NGOs and key partners on: ▪ Protection in the context of the UN framework for the prevention of violent extremism.

An environmentally conscious response

The Sahel is at high risk of being one of the Considering the correlation between climate most impacted regions in the world by climate change and forced displacement, UNHCR will: change, with a projected 3 degrees Celsius

temperature increase, double the projected ▪ Adopt a do-no-harm approach by global average of 1.5 degrees Celsius increase progressively developing a model eco- by 2050. friendly response for shelter and non-food Approximately 80% of the Sahel's farmland items. has already been degraded due to global ▪ Develop community-based preparedness warming. This results in increasing local including through mass information competition for natural resources, particularly campaigns to prevent climate-related food and water, which is one of the direct root forced displacement. causes of the conflict. ▪ Promote and support the use of clean Environmental degradation acts as threat energy by displaced and host communities. multiplier for conflict and instability. While the ▪ Engage youth in plastic and waste competition for scarce resources is increasing collection to build youth community centers and social cohesion and leadership structures with eco-friendly bricks. are being damaged, traditional mediation coping mechanisms are becoming strained or collapsing.

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Burkina Faso In Burkina Faso, the deterioration of the UNHCR is planning to reinforce its response security situation and gross human right and, through its strategic partnerships, support violations have led to mass displacements and the Government Emergency Response Plan, restricted humanitarian access. As of the end of while simultaneously promoting an “alternative- April 2020, some 848,000 people have been to-camps” policy. In close coordination with displaced internally, representing a more than other members of the United Nations Country sixteen-fold increase in the number of IDPs in Team and the Humanitarian Country Team, the country from January 2019. Currently over UNHCR will contribute to the comprehensive six out of ten IDPs in the three central Sahel UN approach to the humanitarian, countries are in Burkina Faso. development, peacebuilding nexus.

Insecurity has also impacted some 25,000 In addition to scaling up its IDP operational Malian refugees in Burkina Faso and recently footprint, UNHCR aims to enhance the prompted them to flee from Goudoubou and protection of Malian refugees formerly residing Mentao camps to Djibo and other locations in and around the Gougoubou and Mentao within Burkina Faso or return to unsafe areas in camps. It will work with the Government of Mali. Intensified armed conflict in a context Burkina Faso to relocate these refugees to where the country has been one of the first in safer sites, while facilitating the voluntary Africa impacted by COVID-19 also provides an repatriation of those wishing to return home uncertain political environment for the despite the insecure circumstances. UNHCR will upcoming presidential election in November support border authorities to put in place 2020. health measures for prevention and control of COVID-19 transmission during return With no end in sight to the Sahel conflict, movements, including the establishment of further displacement is expected in both rural isolation areas. and urban areas.

A survivor’s story

Hawa Sawadoga was at home in Boukouma, Burkina Faso when her nephew alerted the family that armed men were approaching. Within seconds, two dozen men on motorcycles roared up and opened fire as she and other women hid inside.

“They killed my husband and his brother when they had their hands in the air,” she said from Kaya, where she is now displaced.

Hawa buried the dead the next day, then fled with 32 members of her family. Now she has found relative safety at her son’s home in Kaya, 150 kilometers to the south. But she has nightmares, waking up each night screaming, phantom gunshots ringing in her ears. “I am a widow of this conflict,” she said.

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BURKINA FASO | EVOLUTION OF REFUGEE AND IDP POPULATION | 2012 –2020

1,000,000 REFUGEES IDPs TOTAL 900,000

800,000

700,000

600,000

500,000

400,000

300,000

200,000

100,000

- 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 (Apr)

FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS | USD

Operational Sahel Crisis plan 2020 additional COVID-19 Total Burkina Faso (ExCom needs activities approved) (Scale up) Camp management and 1,207,394 1,276,262 1,684,454 4,168,110 coordination Education 710,813 2,376,609 2,034,660 5,122,082 Environment and energy 437,048 749,910 - 1,186,958 Health 1,119,865 - 2,150,115 3,269,980 Livelihoods 1,275,019 - 508,455 1,783,474 Partnerships and coordination 902,386 1,218,703 - 2,121,089 Protection 6,738,115 4,449,381 591,260 11,778,756 Registration, data and protection 2,348,240 1,060,909 591,260 4,000,408 monitoring SGBV 1,627,079 1,602,829 1,020,881 4,250,789 Shelter and core relief items 15,286,742 12,693,790 2,854,189 30,834,720 WASH 474,291 - 1,276,102 1,750,393 Grand total 32,126,993 25,428,392 12,711,375 70,266,760

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Mali In Mali, increased fighting and security Burkina Faso to escape indiscriminate attacks incidents, especially along the border with affecting their security in the country of Burkina Faso and Niger, are likely to result in asylum. Comprising a majority of women and further displacement into the country from children, these returnees urgently need both neighboring countries, with severe shelter, CRIs and cash assistance to consequences for access to social services, reestablish their lives, as well as further protection and natural resources. These educational and protection support. military operations are also expected to UNHCR will establish a new office in Menaka trigger further internal displacements. With as part of the implementation of its Sahel the increasingly volatile security situation strategy, which will enable expanded outreach within camps in Burkina Faso, further returns and assistance to IDPs and returnees in the of Malian refugees are also projected. area, as well as regular and proactive cross- UNHCR’s scaled-up response in Mali will border monitoring and analysis with address the needs of the steadily growing neighboring Niger. Furthermore, UNHCR’s number of IDPs, with shelter as a priority response will provide protection and intervention. As of 1 May 2020, almost assistance for over 10,000 refugees from 251,000 IDPs were registered in the country. Burkina Faso living in Mopti, Timbuktu and UNHCR will continue to address the Gao, in addition to 17,000 refugees from reintegration needs of the growing number of Niger in Menaka and Gao. Malian refugees returning from Niger and

Refugee volunteers help their hosts fight environmental degradation in Mauritania

In the south-east of Mauritania, in the Sahel belt of the country, a group of Malian refugees is waging the “green fight”.

They are the Volontaires Réfugiés pour la Propriété du Camp (VRPC), a group of refugee men and women originally established to help Mbera refugee camp stay clean by collecting waste.

However, VRPC works outside the camp as well.

Last December, on International Volunteer Day, the VRPC cleaned up the streets, schools, the town hall and the main square of Bassikounou.

“We volunteer for our people in the camp, but we want to help the host community too,” said Safiyatou, a Malian refugee woman participating in the VRPC.

The VRPC volunteer services are not limited to waste collection. They have also helped combat desertification and climate change by planting 60,000 trees distributed by a local NGO, SOS Desert. Their support has been crucial in combating wildfires, a major recurring cause of environmental degradation in the area.

In one of the most fragile and climate-change affected regions of the world, Malian refugees who have found safety and stability in Mauritania, are helping to bust the myth that refugees are amongst the greatest polluters and degraders of the environment by proving exactly the opposite.

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MALI | EVOLUTION OF REFUGEE AND IDP POPULATION | 2012 –2020

300000 REFUGEES IDPs TOTAL 250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

0 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 (Apr)

FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS | USD

Operational Sahel Crisis Plan 2020 Additional COVID-19 Mali (ExCom Needs Activities Total approved) (Scale Up) Camp management and - - 300,001 300,001 coordination Education 776,538 1,791,695 700,000 3,268,233 Environment and energy 2,042,851 - 2,042,851 Health 159,584 - 1,815,000 1,974,584 Livelihoods 1,046,727 313,352 320,720 1,680,800 Partnerships and 305,803 733,166 - 1,038,968 coordination Protection 7,570,508 3,459,390 350,000 11,379,898 Registration, data and 179,302 994,134 200,774 1,374,209 protection monitoring SGBV 62,315 1,224,162 400,000 1,686,477 Shelter and core relief items 5,640,079 10,283,480 2,538,000 18,461,559 WASH 862,933 - 1,393,505 2,256,438 Grand total 16,603,790 20,842,229 8,018,000 45,464,019

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Niger region or back to Mali. The regions of Tillabery In Niger, the persistent insecurity, increase in and Tahoua were already hosting over 95,000 forced recruitment, abductions and killings by IDPs and 58,000 refugees from Mali, as well armed actors in Tillabery and Tahoua have as 3,170 Burkinabe refugees. triggered mass population displacements both internally in Niger and into neighboring Mali. UNHCR will primarily focus on the IDP In these regions, UNHCR and partners have response in these two regions, prioritizing documented 191 protection incidents— shelter and CRIs, as well as SGBV response attacks, killings, kidnapping, theft and and education, while strengthening the eco- extortion as well as SGBV—including 549 friendly character of its interventions. victims in the first three months of 2020 in localities within 50 km of the borders. In addition, UNHCR will continue investing in the socio-economic inclusion of refugees, to As a result, a sharp increase in displacement enhance peaceful coexistence between the has been recorded since January 2020, with displaced populations and their host 26,000 new IDPs and movement of 5,000 communities. UNHCR will also support the Malian refugees to either other parts of the government’s COVID-19 response.

NIGER | EVOLUTION OF REFUGEE AND IDP POPULATION | 2012 –2020

500,000 REFUGEES IDPs TOTAL 450,000

400,000

350,000

300,000

250,000

200,000

150,000

100,000

50,000

- 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 (Apr)

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FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS | USD

Operational Sahel Crisis plan 2020 additional COVID-19 Total Niger (ExCom needs activities approved) (Scale up) Camp management and 1,182,136 122,878 - 1,305,014 coordination Education 1,971,347 1,737,850 684,980 4,394,178 Environment and energy 1,076,785 1,997,030 - 3,073,815 Health 1,494,456 - 1,732,158 3,226,615 Livelihoods 3,226,660 763,570 297,809 4,288,039 Partnerships and 1,155,118 103,740 450,122 1,708,981 coordination Protection 8,978,477 2,316,484 2,192,822 13,487,783 Registration, data and 1,630,395 352,417 252,916 2,235,728 protection monitoring SGBV 3,966,066 1,603,457 - 5,569,523 Shelter and core relief 7,752,697 3,230,557 632,289 11,615,543 items WASH 1,376,280 - 1,202,117 2,578,397 Grand total 33,810,417 12,227,985 7,445,213 53,483,615

Coordination and working in partnership UNHCR will work with national, regional and ▪ Work closely with UN and NGO partners international humanitarian, development and to carry out and strengthen data peace actors to create synergies in addressing collection and analysis through Project 21 forced displacement and supporting solutions. and the World Bank Group-UNHCR Joint In coordination and partnership with others, Data Center. UNHCR will: ▪ In its role as global cluster lead or co- lead for the Protection, Shelter and CCCM ▪ Create a linkage between the Bamako Clusters, ensure dissemination of the Process and the UN Integrated Strategy analyzed data to guide evidence-based for the Sahel and seek the participation decision-making among partners. and support of other UN agencies, NGOs ▪ Engage in the Sahel Inter-agency Cross- and other key partners to the various Pillar Predictive Analytics Pilot to identify technical committees. the likelihood of future outcomes based ▪ Continue, as one of the agencies with the on historical data. most extensive field presence in the ▪ Work with governments and other region, to open its offices to other UN partners to operationalize the pledges agencies to enhance operational they made during the Global Refugee coordination. Forum, covering protection, livelihoods, ▪ Ensure continued alignment with other education and employment opportunities existing coordination mechanisms such as for refugees and IDPs. the Humanitarian Response Plans and the ▪ Raise awareness of the ever-increasing UN Sustainable Development Framework. humanitarian needs

UNHCR / June 2020 17

SAHEL CRISIS > RESPONDING TO THE URGENT NEEDS OF REFUGEES, INTERNALLY DISPLACED, RETURNEES AND OTHERS OF CONCERN

Funding the response

UNHCR is appealing for $185.7 million to deliver critical protection and assistance to displaced populations within and across the volatile boundaries of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. This figure represents the total needs of a comprehensive response, including UNHCR Executive Committee-approved program budgets for 2020, COVID-19 response activities included in UNHCR’s revised Coronavirus emergency appeal, and $59.7 million in additional needs for the scaled-up response to the Sahel Crisis. Given the growing magnitude of challenges, these requirements may be revised as the humanitarian needs, including COVID-19 response, evolve.

The most valuable financial support that donors could provide to this prioritised response would be with flexible funding, that is, funding which is unearmarked or softly earmarked. This support allows UNHCR to place it anywhere within a given situation, in line with the Office’s priorities, from where people in need are forced to flee, to where they find refuge. Importantly, flexible funding needs to be timely for UNHCR to plan in the most efficient manner, allocating to priorities first. Flexible funding is truly a lifeline, both for urgent situations and for under-funded operations such as those in this crisis in the Sahel.

Operational Sahel Crisis plan 2020 additional COVID-19 Operations (ExCom needs activities Total approved) (Scale up) Burkina Faso 32,126,993 25,428,392 12,711,375 70,266,760 Mali 16,603,790 20,842,229 8,018,000 45,464,019 Mauritania 14,203,297 - 1,079,298 15,282,594 Niger 33,810,417 12,227,985 7,445,213 53,483,615 Regional activities - 1,201,394 - 1,201,394 Total 96,744,497 59,700,000 29,253,886 185,698,382

Operational Sahel Crisis plan 2020 additional COVID-19

Sector (ExCom needs activities Total approved) (Scale up) Camp management and 3,192,581 1,399,140 1,984,455 6,576,176 coordination Education 4,260,686 5,906,154 3,419,640 13,586,480 Environment and energy 1,608,181 4,789,791 - 6,397,972 Health 4,343,101 - 6,776,571 11,119,672 Livelihoods 8,288,431 1,076,922 1,126,984 10,492,337 Partnerships and coordination 2,405,318 3,257,003 450,122 6,112,444 Protection 26,331,525 10,225,254 3,134,082 39,690,862 Registration, data and 4,824,320 2,407,459 1,044,949 8,276,728 protection monitoring SGBV 5,807,908 4,430,449 1,420,881 11,659,238 Shelter and core relief items 31,781,152 26,207,827 6,024,478 64,013,457 WASH 3,901,294 - 3,871,723 7,773,017 Total 96,744,497 59,700,000 29,253,886 185,698,382

18 UNHCR /June 2020

SAHEL CRISIS 2020

RESPONDING TO THE URGENT NEEDS OF REFUGEES, INTERNALLY DISPLACED, RETURNEES AND OTHERS OF CONCERN

JUNE 2020

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